Word.ws English Dictionary

things that go bump in the night

things that go bump in the night noun: frightening imagined creatures; ghosts or other supernatural beings.

Noun

things that go bump in the night pl (plural only)

  1. (humorous, informal, plural, plural-only) Frightening imagined creatures; ghosts or other supernatural beings.
    • "From Ghaisties, Ghoulies, and Long-Leggity Beasties, and Things That Go Bump in the Night - Good Lord Deliver us."1911, Harriott Ely Fansler, Types of prose narratives: A text-book for the story writer, page 43
    • Hellish new noises from new and secret British anti-aircraft devices vibrated last week through the din of London bombings. . . . [T]hey must have reminded Londoners of the old litany:
      From ghoulies and ghosties,
      Long leggety beasties
      And things that go bump in the night
      Good Lord, deliver us.1940, "Life on the Newsfronts of the World," Life Magazine, 7 Oct., p. 32

Questions about things that go bump in the night

What does things that go bump in the night mean?
Things that go bump in the night means frightening imagined creatures; ghosts or other supernatural beings.
What part of speech is things that go bump in the night?
Things that go bump in the night is a noun.

Words near things that go bump in the night in the dictionary

  1. thingos
  2. things
  3. things in action
  4. things in possession
  5. things of nothing
  6. things that go bump in the night
  7. things-in-themselves
  8. thingstead
  9. thingsteads
  10. Thingujam
  11. thingum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: things that go bump in the night (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-things that go bump in the night.ogg.

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